Tennessee Volunteers:
How A Contender Responder Helps Save Lives And Quench Thirst

West Lauderdale, Tennessee, is sixty-five square miles of mostly farmland and wildland bordering the Mississippi River north of Memphis. Its small volunteer fire department needs to cover a lot of ground and, in doing so, faces a lot of challenges.

It’s no wonder that Assistant Chief Ron Weir was happy that, through a FEMA grant he wrote and submitted, the department was able to acquire a new Contender© Responder©– its first new rig ever.

Even Weir, however, probably wasn’t as happy about it as another Tennessee man who came to appreciate the Contender Responder even though he wasn’t even in the department’s fire protection district. The man had been working under a pick-up truck when it fell on him. Because the new Contender Responder could haul all the required rescue gear, Weir's department was called upon to raise the pick-up “so paramedics could get him out and put him on the helicopter.” The successful rescue was one of more than a dozen emergency responses for the vehicle in less than six months.

Like many other rural departments, West Lauderdale sometimes feels less like a First Responder and more like an Only Responder – at least when it comes to the more demanding rescues.

Before the Contender Responder fought fires, it defeated the competition.

In West Lauderdale, Contender Responder replaced not one, but two vehicles – '76 and '78 models that could be politely described as “vintage”. The department had rigged one to carry equipment; the other to act as a fire engine. Knowing this wasn’t a long-term solution, Weir put together a working group which short-listed five vehicles. Two finalists received a closer inspection by the entire department.

“Our team went over them head to toe, asked questions. I mean we really went over them,” Weir explained. At a follow up meeting, the vote was fourteen to one in favor of the Contender Responder. He added, “We believe that’s what the politicians call a mandate.”

Because it was a new rig, Weir could plan for exactly what he needed, based on his experience as a rural firefighter. That’s why the new vehicle is outfitted with a compartment-mounted refrigerator. Far from being a luxury, the appliance enables firefighters who have been battling a scorching blaze to grab a cold bottled water to rehydrate themselves.

Firefighters visiting from several other departments have all said the same thing about the refrigerator: “Well that’s the smartest thing we’ve ever seen.”

More storage means more capabilities.

Weir summed up his challenge succinctly: “We needed every square inch of space that we could get to be able to put two trucks into one.”

“That’s one reason we picked the Responder,” he continued. “It had tremendous equipment storage space, enclosed ladder storage and lower crosslays.”

The Contender Responder features a shape-fitting water/foam tank, and up to 130 cubic feet of compartment space in as little as a 195-inch wheelbase. It also comes with roll-up doors, a rescue-style jump off compartment on the passenger side and a rapid response compartment located at the rear of the truck with ladder storage at hip height.

The interior configuration worked well for West Lauderdale. “Being a volunteer department, you’re seldom able to respond with five people in the engine. We felt that if we had three seats, and two of them with SCBA capabilities, that would do everything we needed,” explained Weir. As anyone who looked at the vehicle at FDIC can attest, the seat configuration allows easy movement. Moreover, the configuration freed up interior space for rescue and EMS equipment.

It’s pretty impressive to see everything Weir was able to pack into the vehicle: hose trays on both sides, two and a half sections of hard suction hose on the pool side and a six inch one on the hydrant side, as well as slide out trays for the generator and the Hurst rescue tool. All of this is packed into a two-door extended cab model that can be parked in a modest fire station.

Options help departments meet their needs. Smart design helps them meet their budgets.

The Contender Responder was designed for departments with limited funds that want to purchase a vehicle that is engineered, manufactured, and supported by Pierce.

Everything is built on one of three commercial chassis–the Freightliner M2 and the International 4400 and 7400 (4X4) – which are then configured into a complete line of 2- or 4-door pumpers. Features include a tough aluminum body with a powder-coated steel substructure; a choice of 750-, 1000- or 1,250-gallon capacity poly water tank backed with a lifetime warranty; a PTO-driven pump with a 1,250 gallons per minute (gpm) rating and a five-year warranty; pump-in-motion capability; stainless steel piping; a single-agent foam system that is plumbed to two, low-positioned crosslays with easy-to-reach removable packing trays; an easy-to-operate pump system with lever handles and direct valve access; and a high visibility LED lighting package.

And, of course, Pierce’s legendary support is standard. In Chief Weir’s region, Pro Fire Equipment handles maintenance training, service and parts support. Weir is impressed by the fact that, if there is an issue, Pro Fire shows up right away and, if possible, does all the work at the station. “That’s the kind of service we’ve come to expect from the team at Pro Fire,” Weir said.

Other departments have already stopped by to see the new Contender Responder and they’ve been impressed. Weir got a call from a chief as far away as Alabama, wanting his feedback on the truck and its capabilities. Closer to home, a sister department in the county also received a FEMA grant. They’ve chosen to go with a nearly identical Contender Responder – right down to the compartment-mounted onboard refrigerator.